Armed Forces Museum makes history come to life. (Southern Scrapbook).

Visitors to the all-new Armed Forces Museum, located at Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, can take a trip back in time and experience nearly two hundred years of military campaigns and service from the War of 1812 to the present.

The museum seeks to honor the individuals who have served America and to chronicle the history of the Armed Forces in Mississippi, particularly at Camp Shelby, said Chad Daniels, museum director. Daniels said he believes people visit museums to be in the presence of history; therefore, the museum's design is more akin to European museums than traditional American museums. "Many American museums practice a form of minimalism, relying on graphics, audio/visual presentations, and interactive computers to tell a story with few choice historical artifacts," said Daniels. "The Armed Forces Museum at Camp Shelby deviates from this school of thought."

Many of the exhibits are multi-sensory experiences rather than just visual and audio presentations. The museum also holds a vast collection of over 17,000 artifacts and is "artifact intensive" in exhibit arrangement. "The museum features many life-sized dioramas and immersive exhibits," said Daniels. "The exhibits enable visitors to enter each exhibit itself and experience some of the conditions our servicemen and women encountered."

History comes to life for visitors as they enter into the "Trench Experience," a World War I interactive trench, complete with life-sized soldiers and intense sounds, lighting, smoke, fire, and smells of trench-life. Other multi-sensory exhibits include a scene from life at Camp Shelby during World War II where visitors enter a barracks from the second World War, a wintry scene from the Chosin Reservoir during the Korean Conflict where the temperature drops, and a medical evacuation scene from the Vietnam War, complete with functional helicopter lights, rotors, smells, and sounds.

From the theater production presenting a brief history of Camp Shelby to the museum's library, which contains over 3,500 volumes relating to U.S. military history, the facility houses the state's largest historical collection. The collection of archival materials numbers over 3,000 documents, photographs, and rare publications, with a significant portion of archival materials relating to German prisoners of war held at Camp Shelby and throughout Mississippi during World War II.

The museum grounds currently features a row of eight monuments dedicated to units and veterans' organizations. Various types of military equipment displayed on museum grounds include five helicopters, twelve tanks, airplanes, armored vehicles, and cannons, including an original World War I cannon.

The museum's doors opened October 27, 2001, and according to Daniels, it attracted more than 5,587 visitors in its first month of operation. He said the responses from schools have been very encouraging towards the goal of being an educational resource for the state.

The Armed Forces Museum offers guided or nonguided tours. Times for guided tours must be reserved at least two weeks prior to the visit. Groups are welcome, and special tours are provided for groups of twenty or more. The hours of operation are Tuesday Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.